A farmer displays newly-harvested pumpkins in Xujiaba Township, Sinan County of southwest China's Guizhou Province, Aug. 12, 2020.(Photo: Xinhua)

 

A villager walks on a newly-built iron-chain bridge in Wuying Village, a remote village inhabited by the Miao ethnic group on the border between south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and southwest China's Guizhou Province, Dec. 25, 2020.(Photo: Xinhua)

 

Poverty relief assistants and village officers help carry melons planted by villagers in Dongqin Village, Congjiang County of southwest China's Guizhou Province, Nov. 11, 2020.(Photo: Xinhua)

 

An engineering boat of the China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC) stands by at the Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) at the Port of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka, Dec. 1, 2020, getting ready for the JCT expansion project.(Photo: Xinhua)

 
Sri Lanka's Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana has lauded China's success in eradicating poverty.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Abeywardena, who has visited China several times since 1987, said that development under the Communist Party of China has been magnificent, especially in rural areas.

"It's amazing the development you see if you go inside the country," he said.

Abeywardena said the "conviction, commitment and sacrifice" of the CPC is the secret behind China's successes in the field of development. The example set by the CPC inspires the Chinese people to action, he said.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, more than 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty, which represent over 70 percent of global poverty reduction. Notably, over the past eight years, the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have been lifted above it, according to the Chinese government.

Sri Lanka and China have long-standing bonds of friendship, the speaker said. He called for more dialogue with Chinese counterparts as well as more frequent visits to China by Sri Lankan policymakers in order to identify and learn from China's development success.

The Sri Lanka-China development projects have been formulated on a win-win basis, Abeywardana said, adding that Port City Colombo, a flagship Belt and Road project, is the biggest investment in the country's history and its land reclamation has expanded the country's geography.

"I believe very soon there will be huge investment coming into Sri Lanka that will be a big economic boost," he said.

Abeywardena said that Sri Lanka has shown impressive progress after emerging from a 30-year civil war. The government has worked hard to rehabilitate former fighters, and resettle internally displaced people, while the military has de-mined vast areas of former war zones, he said.

Under the leadership of the Sri Lankan government, war-affected areas are now major agricultural producers and supplied with basic infrastructure and resources, including housing, water and electricity, Abeywardena said.